October 16th
Well, once more I sit down and attempt to collect my thoughts and remember what I have done over these past few weeks. I can’t even remember what I had for supper last night…so this might take me a minute. East Asia, Vietnam, a country that continues to surprise me with its culture, landscapes and people. I have had so many opportunities to meet new people, teach so many happy and energetic students, and have long conversations with strangers that I am happy to now call friends. Through my excursions and explorations these past weeks, I have found myself eating frog legs and clams, dealing with my phone being stolen, and spending 384km on the back of a motorbike; yes, ouch.
I have comfortably settled into my lesson planning and teaching schedule over the past weeks. Each unit contains 3 lessons, and each lesson contains 2 periods where we work with 6 different learning activities. I was confused at first, but it’s quite simple to iron out when you watch and teach a few lessons. I tend to teach periods 2, 3 and 5 or 6 throughout the week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The students are excited to learn every day, and it makes me want to hammer out a good lesson with games and group work for them to enjoy. From songs to posters and races to the front of the class, my classrooms are very loud and active. Ideally, the students learn something when they leave my class, and I’m confident that they do when the next class I review the material, and they can confidently shout the answers out to me and the rest of the class. My partner teacher, Salem, aka Mrs. Lem, has been a big help when I need someone to translate my instructions for the students. Believe it or not, when you try to speak slowly and pronounce your words more dramatically, the students will still not be able to understand you.
Teaching has been very interesting for me. As I teach grades 3 & 5, and my studies have been centred around teaching secondary education, I had to stop thinking in the style of project assignments and turn my attention to following a workbook and teaching what the students could better follow along with. I enjoy having the students compete in 2 separate groups in the classroom, then they feel more inclined to answer questions first and pay attention to when their group is called. The students here have very impressive reading skills in their English classes. Normally, before I need to explain what is going on in a conversation between two of their study book characters, they are already able to understand what is going on based off of the conversation bubbles. The classes here are just as excited to see me every morning and afternoon as they were the first day I got here, which I enjoy because it gives me a chance to have basic conversations with them and tell them about Canada when they ask. The other day I taught a lesson concerning foreign friends and told the class that if they did not have a foreign friend, they could just make one up based on the examples I gave them. When I called up the students to demonstrate their work for the class and tell us about their foreign friends from around the world, I was bombarded with drawings of myself and presentations the students had made to talk about “teacher Blaine”! All in all, the classes have been just as much fun teaching and stepping out of my comfort zone, as it has been challenging and time-consuming. There is a festival the school is also hosting at this time where we as student teachers can judge presentations a representative of each grade presents to us. They dress up and do an amazing job.
In the past couple of weeks, I managed to cross a few more things off my list for my time here in Vietnam. I got out and tried lots of new foods, including crab, clams, and frog legs. The local cuisine is diverse and very tasty! It’s difficult to find a proper Americano coffee out here, whenever I ask for a regular black coffee hot, they serve a condensed espresso shot or some sort of brown goop. I’m not complaining though, I have had a chance to try even more coffee drinks from all over the country. My morning swims in the ocean was halted for a couple weeks due to bad weather and high waves, which was disappointing, and as soon as it cleared up a bit, I took advantage of it to go for an evening swim with my fellow TAB member, Olivia. As a basic rule of thumb, I never take important items to the beach with me in my bag if I’m going to swim, just my towel, and any drinks or food. However, this time, without thinking, and as I waited for Olivia to meet me in the lobby, I tossed my phone in my bag, and we took off. We swam for 10min and as we came back to the beach, her bag was sitting alone and mine was long gone. If you want a piece of advice coming to Vietnam, never..never, lose your phone! It is not easy to replace and change accounts over.
There are so many great memories I have made and will continue to make through the rest of my stay. I have taken a 3-day motorbike tour with fellow TAB members Hiba and Bianca, up in Hanoi following the famous Ha Giang loop. This was an amazing trip where we could travel through beautiful mountain scenes, and old villages, and meet some amazing people. I have wandered through the Old Town of Hoi An and hiked up mountains. From eating, working, exploring and meeting new people, this has been everything I was told by my family and friends back home, a “once in a lifetime trip”!
“I think riches are found in the people you love and the strangers you meet. The chances you take to travel this world and to find beauty in the smallest of things”
-Wise old woman of Ha Giang
Once more, that’s all for now.
Cheers!
Blaine B.